Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-10-21
Something of Second Hand Girls.

Something Of Second Hand Girls.
I once heard a lady say to her daugh-
ter, who was pleading to be allowed to
learn round dances:
"No! That is one thing [ never will
allow. If you want a young man toput
his arms round you, bring him home
into the parlor where your father and I
are. l cannot have you embraced be-
fore room full of people and whirled
round at that"
This was, perhaps, rather a bold
statement, reduction to first princi-
pies, but it echoed my feeling.
Sir she's yours, you have brushed from the
grape its soft blue;
From the rosebud you've shaken it's tremulous
dew;
What you've touched you may take; pretty
Walter, adieu!"
7 do not know who wrote the lines,
but dear, sensible Miss Edgworth puts
them into the mouth OF one of her
heroes.
Do not, either, go out to dine with
any young man but your brother in he
evening; it may be lawful for you to do
SO, but not expedient. Don't romp with
young men; have heard party of
young people in the country make as
much rude noise as q herd of colts;
pulling, snatching, slapping. chasing
each other; my dear girls, don't Be-
lieve me, if you do not respect your
selves, no person on earth
will respect you; modest, gentle,
sweet young girl is the loveliest thing
the Lord ever made; I feel a sort of
alteration for such girl, but I have
little chance for this worship. They
are as rare as black swans. used to
see them in my youth, but they are
gone; oh, could I but restore the cold
fashioned" girl to this age, what bene-
factor should be to mankind. How
neat was her dress; how simple and
cordial her manner. We thought it a
dreadful term Of reproach to call one
affected. Those girls obeyed their
mothers and fathers, and really sup
posed there were some things in heaven
and earth their parents understood bet
ter than they did; they knew how to
sew with exquisite neatness; how to
make a bed and shirt; if their educa-
ton did not extend to classical music,
the higher mathematics and dead
languages, they were grounded we'll in
the useful knowledge that is needed
every day. They did not get up in
prayer meetings and obtrude their
opinions or their experience upon the
public. Saint Paul had not become a
delusion and snare then; they did not
call his indignant words that "it is a
shame for women to speak in the
church" the utterance Of "an old
bachelor" "an old fogy;;" they had re-
spect for the Word of God in all its
fullness and detail. All, what wives
and mothers they made!
But now-faunting about the streets,
their hair all about their eyes like skye
terriers, their figures distorted into the
likeness of nothing in heaven above or
earth beneath, by humps a dromedary
would revile, their vital organs squeezed
into numbness and uselessness, thrown
ont of balance and therefore out OF
gear, by heels that give them the gait
Of equity old men, their heads crowned
with heaps of "fuss and feathess, if they
are net making acquaintance with no
introduction as they promenade the
nayement, or flying round soae hall
closely folded to the bosom OF a youth
Of their own sort, they are loungsng at
home in the easy chair that should have
haen their tired mothers, pounding
ont Gathering marches OF tuneless
nolkas on poor piano; or leading
prayer neutrality-suspicious. not having
reached that height, only offering eS-
hortation or petition with the apiomo
and self.confdence Of q deacon OF the
ohnrch,--Rose Terry Cooke.